^^%^. I..3AL 



11 UNITED STATES OF AMERIC 



i '5&<5»<3St-'^,' 



^^<S 



% ^ ^ ^ 

C CC CC 
c cc CC; 



C Cc< 















C tec 



(( Cv ^c 












c<r«: c c 



^<r <X. <?lc:<: 






OC^ C < 



c c^ ^ 



€c^v€^S<2 



X.^ ^K 








A Trip to Pioche; 



k SKETCH OF RECENT FRONTIER TRkMEL 



CHARLES A. SUMNER. 



©elivei^eel kt f)^,^l)h.wh.y fl^ll, 



AUGUST 17th, 1873. 



I!i<-. 




DR. BARLOW J. SMITH'S 

Allo-HMieDopatMc, Mefal anl Sirgical Iistitnte, 

No8. 635 and 637 CALIFORNIA STREET, 



Bc-t. Kearny and Diipont, opposite St. Mary's Cathedral, 



SAN FRANCISCO. 



This is the only Medical Institute on the Pacific Coast that proposes to combine the 
Hygienic and Allopathic principles of Medication in the cure of all forms of Acute and 
Chronic Disease ; and, by associating these two principles of medicine, offers to invalids 
both male and female, advantages that no other medical institute on the Pacific Coast does. 
Its Materia Medica or means of cure consist of Medicines, Surgery, Mechanical ApplianceSs 
every form of Electro-Medical Baths, Motorpathic Exercise, Mental Hygiene and Healthful 
Diet, together with instructions in the preservation of health. 

Our facilities for the cure of all forms of Mental, Nervous and Vital Debility are 
supreme, as compared with any one who practices exclusive drug medications. 

There is not one man in twenty siiffering from Rheumatism, Dyspepsia. Drug, or Sec- 
ondary Diseases, Spermatorrhoea or Seminal Weakness, that can not be permanently cured 
by one month's Water Ciure and Hygienic medical treatment, for one-half it would cost 
where drugs are exclusively employed. 

Where there is a fair constitution left, we never fail to cure the following diseases: 
Chronic, Inflammatory and Mercurial Rheumatism; Paralysis; Lung, Bronchial, and Ca- 
tarrhal Affections; Diseases of the Heart, Kidneys, Liver, Dyspepsia, Cfonstipation, Erysip- 
elas, Scrofula, Piles, Inflammation of the Bowels, chronic and acute; Diarrhoea, and all dis- 
eases and weaknesses peculiar to males and females. 

We have a separate medical department for Ladies ; for the cure of all forms of Uterine 
Displacement, Ulcerations and Nervous Derangements, with treatment the most kindly ad- 
ministered and most complete in results ever oftered to this class of Invalids, together with 
nearly every form of toilet and medical bath found in any Water Cure in the World. 

The fact that the majority of men and women fail in a iJcrmanent cure, by the treat- 
ment of our most popular physicians, who rely mainly upon drugs and whose means are 
confined to a mere ofBce practice, is no evidence that all such cannot be readily cm-ed by the 
varied means employed in this universal system of medication. 

Young men who have become debilitated or lost their health by exposure or enervating 
habits, may find with us more of the encouragaments they need, and means that will restore 
them to health, than elsewhere in California. 

Ladies and gentlemen who cannot conveniently leave home for the recovery of health, 
can be furnished with a package of AUo-Hygieuopathic remedies, and full written advice in 
regard to diet, bathing and home treatment for any given case, for twenty dollars. 

DR. B. J. SMITH invites all who are coming to San Francisco for the purpose of obtain- 
ing medical aid, and who are interested in the laws of Hygiene and the health reform, to 
make his Hygeian Home their resort during their stay in the city. 

Our ijrices are not extortionate in any case, but come within the range of all for board 
and treatment in the Institute. 

DR. J. H. TUFFORD (formerly of Cincinnati, O.) is Resident Consulting Phvsician and 
Surgeon. DR. B. J. SMITH, 

Hygienic Physician and Surgeon. 



Established 1854. 



VSr. E. IiOOMIS, 

Corner Sansome and Washington Sts, 

SAN FRANCISCO. 



Weekly Alta California $3 00 

" Bulletin 5 00 

Examiner 5 00 

Sundav Chronicle ; . . . 2 00 

" Golden Era 3 50 

Spirit of the Times 5 00 

" Humorist, (fterman) 5 00 

" Demokrat, " 5 00 

.\bendPost, " 5 00 

Echo Du Padflque, (French).. 7 60 

Nuevo Mundo, (Spanish) 10 00 

Monitor. (Catholic) 5 00 

Nationali.st, " 5 00 

Guardian " 6 00 

Pacific Rural Press 4 00 

Ciilifornia Farmer 5 00 

" News Li'ttcr 7 m 



Weekly Now Age, (Odd Fellows' Organ) $5 00 

Jolly Giant 5 00 

" Independent Defender 4 00 

Pacific, (Religious) 4 00 

" Occident, " 2 00 

" Commercial Herald and Mar- 
ket Review 9 00 

" Mining and Scientific Press 5 00 

Sa<'ramento Weekly Union 5 00 

Record 5 00 

Oakland Home Journal 4 00 

San Francisco Overland Monthly 4 fK) 

Horticulturist ..." :f 00 

Bancn^ft's Guide 3 00 

Western World 2 50 

" Resources of California. 2 OO 

California Scandinavian 2 50 



A TEIP TO PIOCHE, 



k SKETCH OF RECENT FRONTIER TRAVEL 



— BY 

Cliarles ^. S-aniner. 



Delivered at Dashaway Hall, August 17th, 1873. 



Mr. E. T. Battiirs, President of the Dashaway Association, introduced Mr. 
Sumner. Mr. Sumner said : 

Mb. Pkesident, Ladies and Gentlemen :— 

It was a cold, gloomy evening, on the 11th of March, 1873, when our train passed through 
the last deep tunnel or gorge of the Palisades, and drew up at the station which bears the 
distinctive name of that wonderful canon, on the line of the Central Pacific Railroad. Dis- 
tant from San Francisco over five hundred miles by the great transcontinental highway, it 
requires, according to the time-table of the Company, thirty-two hours for the journey from 
our Bay to this, the nearest point of stage departure for the southern mines of Nevada. 

We had left Sacramento at two o'clock in the afternoon of the preceding day, when the 
sun was shining with summer warmth, and the bursting noise and the fragrance of the' 
peach blossoms were among the items of delightful observation ; and we had all the sorrows 
of doleful contrast which the nature of the bleakest season and the dreariest landscape couldi 
present. I had been accustomed to mountain "coach" traveling, and knew from the first 
moment of my appointment that the trip would be very wearisome from the dati; of our leav- 
ing the railway ; and I had not been without special warning from competent authority 
against flattering myself with the unctious idea of a moderate or average amount of hard*- 
ship on the route from Palisade to Pioche, at this period. But with all the determination 
which this preparatory knowledge had given me, I felt the weaker side of my humanity 
when I saw the miserable mud-wagon in which the first section of the journey was to be 
performed— eighty-five miles, more or less ; with four tired horses hitched in front, and six 
to eight hundred pounds of extra express in process of loading, fore and aft, and on the 
" hind seat " of the dilapidated vehicle. 

Four male passengers, besides myself — three white men and one Chinaman — were on the 
list. But the former were evidently of that rough, good-natured style of pioneers which are 
far preferable to any others in such a country, as compaffnons du voyage, on account cf their 
spirit of accommodation and the muscular capacity to " help out " in case of accidents most 
likely to happen in dragging along miry roads and crossing swollen, treacherous streams. 



— 2 — 

These four had appropriated the remaining inside seats prior to my arrival at the platform, 
against which the hubs of the wagon were set ; hut they kindly comforted me with the assur- 
ance that when it became too chilly for a white man to ride outside I could tumble in -with 
them, and take pot-luck— squeezing and snoozing amidships under their capacious blankets. 
So without the disposition to grumble, I mounted the box vfith the driver, and after the 
usual tardy way-bill inspection, we were pulled round to the road, and commenced winding in 
and winding out on the turnpike edge of the pass to the south. Before we had made a half 
mile's progress, I learned that the wagon in which we rode was, as I had suspected, a legacy 
from the Placerville-Washoe route, and even that the Jehu beside whom I had the honor of 
occupying a seat was an ancient denizen of that once famous stage town at the foot of the El 
Dorado County Road; that the " going" from a point a few miles further on to the end of 
the second relay of horses was " chain-lightning" ; while the bottom (so called on the prin- 
ciple of Bottom's dream, doubtless) from that second relay to Mineral Hill— thence about 
thirty miles distant— was " nearly ." 

Now, with all this foreshadowing, I closed my eyes, rubbed my teeth against each other 
with the emphasis of determination, and was fairly possessed of a sense of my ordained 
martyrdom, and ready to endure all things. Stage travelers know that there is an instant 
of revelation which conquers fear and shrinking, and nothing can thenceforth come amiss, 
although the feeling of misery may be perfect throughout. So I am not going to give you 
the particiilars of the struggle along the road with the intonation of a groan. The diflficul- 
ties, hindrances, and, if necessary, sufferings, I will sketch or indicate as I knew them — with 
composure and courage ; while, for every incident of alleviation from the worst phase of 
such a journey, and for every downright stroke of humor vouchsafed, I intend to express my 
thorough appreciation and gratitude. Stage traveling on mountain roads in wintry weather 
is a first-class experience ; for it renders one suitably thankful for the painless, if not pleas- 
ing, conditions of ordinary civilized life. 

I might, perhaps, give a satisfactory compendium statement of the roughness of the 
road from Palisade to Mineral Hill, when I say that the account and the prophecy of the 
driver, which I have quoted, were approximately realized. A few details by the way, 
however. 

Within one mile of the depot, we were obliged to turn off the regular road on account of 
the washing away of a bridge, and take a " cross-cut" and make the ascent of a steep hill- 
some fifty feet high— following a trail that had not been attempted even in the best " going" 
during the preceding two years. The mud was hub-deej). With " all hands out," and every 
available boosting place occupied by the passengers, it required over half an hour to make 
this ascent ; the driver doubtful at every stop and step as to whether we could " fetch it" : 
the final accomplishment of the undertaking being deemed worthy to be hailed with a "hur- 
rah ! boys" — very sincere and hearty, if not very loud. A precipitous descent, and then a 
steady, tough pull, with variations of extraordinary efforts necessary to make the slight^t 
progress. So we crawled on to the first station. On our right, across the narrow valley, or 
pass, through which we were moving — which was not above a quarter of a mile in breadth — 
there was a gently sloping hill the greater portion of the distance from the railroad to the 
first change of horses ; while on the left, after we had crossed the sharp hill to which I have 
alluded, there was close at hand an abrupt, almost perpendicular wall of rock at least two 
hundred feet in height. This sheer precipice of porphyry had been curiously honeycombed 
by the action of the water ; and from many an oval fissure or cell the voice of the owl came 
forth in accents not calculated to cheer the wayfarer's heart ; and occasionally the face and 
form of this bird of wisdom, singularly adrfpted to his position, was to be descried through 
the deepening shades of night as he sat at the mouth of his natural domicil and hooted deri- 
sively at us as we jolted and sloshed along at the rate of a mile and a half per hour. 

Soon after sundown the moon made its appearance. It was nine o'clock when we 
reached the end of the first section, as measured by the change of teams and also of postil- 
lions. In " good going " the stage reaches Mineral Hill at this time in the evening. We had 
made one third of that distance in eight hours ! 

From this point on I beg leave to boast of having walked more than half the distance to 
Miaeral Hill. It was the preferable mode, on account of the necessity or desire for keeping 
warm, and gaining a species and degree of excitement that lessened the tedium of the way. 
The frosty air soon stiffened the earth so that it would bear me up, and my presence of mind 



— 3 — 

was only required in order to guard against getting beyond the sight and sound of the lum- 
bering, rickety wagon. There were many tracks iu the frequent plateaus we crossed, and 
sometimes I found myself fully a quiirter of a mile from the line the driver had selected. 
With this precaution only, a very moderate pace was sufficient to keep ahead of the team. 
Occ.^sionally in my outwalking I was joined by one or more of my fellow passengers. When 
such was the case, it was because the road was so bad that they were requested to lighten 
the burden. Veterans in the habit of such journeying, these gentlemen from Montana 
could sleep well within the curtains, notwithstanding the dips, angles, and spurs of the 
track. 

In conversation with the elder member of the party, in one of those short companion 
■walks, I ascertained that he was a mountain pioneer of pioneers, and in his fifty-fifth year 
was setting out on what he proclaimed as certain to be the last prospecting venture of his 
life. He had been unfortunate in his early efiorts in California ; had been swindled out of 
his interest in the Pond & del Monte Mine of Aurora by a California Street broker— who has 
since passed in his richer checks, perhaps in retribution for his many fraudulent trans- 
actions, — and had saved but a few hundred dollars from the earnings of his last twenty 
months' mining labor in Idaho. He was full of story and not without humor ; but was most 
interesting when he spoke some certain things of that California Street broker, which, some- 
how, always ended in his going down into a freight wagon rut in a most significant manner. 

In my lonely walks in front of the stage — sufficiently far removed from companionship 
to feel a sense of solitariness,— the sage brush and other scrub trees in the neighborhood, 
with the little hillocks, and the distant mountains, and the near horizon clouds, often took 
on weird shapes, and sometimes forced me to summon all my strength of mind against the 
superstitious inclinations which they aroused. 

The first night out on such a jaunt is always sleepless to one not recently accustomed to 
this kind of constant traveling ; but a somnolence comes with the morning. You resume 
yovu- seat on the box as the eastern sky begins to dapple into gray, with the idea that you can 
strap and brace yourself, and take a little nap, which will answer for the day's refreshment ; 
but, if I can analyze it, you just fail to do this, and hover in that border-line of delusion 
wherein you think you are dreaming and resting, when, in fact, you are obtaining less repose 
than when you sit up rigidly and stare out in the full vigor of resolute wide-awakeativeness. 
So sat I, and fancied that I rocked into broken slumbers now and then, and started up with 
regret from my self-deceit as, at a quarter past eight, we came in sight of Mineral Hiil. 

A tall brick chimney and a smoke-stack, indicating the mill : and a cluster of houses — 
perhaps twenty or thirty in all — were indicated by the roofs which gradually rose to view. 
" A port in a storm — a haven of delight," thought we ; for here, it was the announcement, we 
•were to have a " good square meal " — the first since we left Humboldt Station, at breakfast- 
time the day before. As we passed the western door of the mill, which is situated at the 
lower end of the town, our driver pointed out to us, with some evidence of pride on his i^art, 
the man who had recently been acquitted of the charge of murder in this precinct, by the 
justice of the township. We ventured to inquire as to the opinion of the driver. " Was the 
man guilty of miurder, or not ? '' "Guilty? Yes, guily as guilty could be; but the mill 
company saw him out, as the fellow that was murdered had been bothering the company for 
some time with a lawsuit for wages, which was finally successful." " What was the mur- 
dered man's name !" we all inquired, in unison. " Buckingham," was the reply ; and then, 
of course, we all heartlessly said, in concert, " So much for Buckingham ! " 

Into the dining-room of the hotel ran the five famished passengers. " Ham and eggs, 
and hot rounds for five ! " Marvelous quality of hen-fruit and pork ! One plate could have 
worked a miracle— satisfied the hunger of five thousand. We did as best we could by the aid 
of some two dozen stale soda crackers, and pieces of " one pound of saleratus iu ten pounds 
of flom-," and sips of a decoction of chickory and searweed which was, of course, called cof- 
fee. We were all glad to move on from Mineral Hill. The ancient pioneer remarked, as we 
took our places again : " If Mineral Hill ever burns down, I hope the landlord will not be 
drunk at the time, and fall into the fire." Which was not, however, what the ancient pioneer 
intended to be understood as saying. 

The morning and the afternoon from Mineral Hill was worn away by a brisk horse- walk 
t hrough Pleasant Valley to Garden Pass, at which latter place the road to Eureka crosses the 
old stage route from Austin to Fort liuby— a distance of thirty miles or more from Mineral 



_ 4 — 

Hill. This is called " Garden Pass "—again on Nick the Weaver's principle— because there 
is no garden there. At the foot of the pass bound to the east and south, we changed Jehus, 
relinquishing a dandified young man of many paste shirt-buttons and voluble speech, who 
had, by some inadvertence, consented to act as driver for the stage company for the past y8ar_ 
An elderly gentleman of riibicund visage, suggestive of the ancient Weller pattern, com- 
manded the expedition through Garden Valley to Eureka, distant some twenty odd miles : 
time occupied, from five p.m. to eleven-thirty. Very pleasant, rapid traveling, until the end 
of the canon leading directly up to the furnace capital was reached. At that point, a high- 
way covered with water from an overflowing stream was encountered, and we literally waded 
up the grade to the settlement. And yet, during all this passage, we were edified by the anec- 
dotes and personal descriptions coming voluntarily from the cautious and ever-watchful 
custodian of the reins ; even in the deepest ruts his self-possession and gossip were not lost. 
Two days before this. Judge Richard Mesick and several other lawyers had passed over this 
route ; one after another had sat beside the skillful and fluent coachman, and all had bragged 
to him of their avoirdupois ; he saying to one after another, " Tou must weigh about 180 ; " 
the reply invariably being, " 210 pounds— 210 ! " (No wonder express matter had been accu- 
mulated upon our comparatively slender party.) 

The heavy, sullen flames, and anon the bright lurid tongues of fire which issued from 
the belly of the " Eureka Consolidated," and the slag-goblets that were being emptied at the 
edge of the embankment in front of the furnaces, at the foot of the town of Eureka, notified 
us that we were in close proximity to — yes, that is always the Point named in the hailing 
remark — that we were close to supper, and to a new deal in the wagon and passenger assort, 
ment programme. The smoke was dense, and thoroughly impregnated with the fumes of 
arsenic. 

Three-quarters of an hour for refreshments. A most invigorating repast. A short walk 
down the principal street of Eureka ; noticing prominently, a transparency before one of the 
saloons, with a raging tiger painted thereon, and the assurance, in plainest lettering, that 
the establishment was Running all night. We were met by two cordial young men — very 
cordial, well-dressed, and reasonably intoxicated ; and they invited us to attend a ball ! The 
ancient pioneer and myself politely declined this invitation, but not on the basis of any 
mere technicalities. How could we dance, when our knee-joints were locked within a lee- 
way of an inoh-and-a-half or two inches — just enough for locomotion? This was perhaps a 
cheaj), ironical joke on the part of these hospitable floor-managers of Eureka. But we 
Strayed too far from the stage-coach office. When the ancient and myself returned, tlie best 
seats, with a single exception, had been secured by the newcomers— smembers of the Clark 
family, Geo. Hearst, Senator Wilson from Lincoln county, and a capitalist from San Fran- 
cisco who was not introduced. The remaining back seat was taken by the ancient, of course, 
while I impinged on the edge of the center seat, located next to " old man Clark," so-called, 
who was garrulous as a magpie, and as fragrant as the corner of Merchant Street and Dunbar 
Alley. He said he came away from San Francisco in a hurry, and got a little inebriated on 
account of this necessary haste of departure ; but he expected to reform and join the church 
in Hamilton. The old pioneer mildly suggested that it would have been better if he had 
stayed a week longer in San Francisco and joined the Dashaways. Joe Clark and George 
Hearst of Missouri, sat on the left side of the front and back seats respectively ; the front 
seat being occupied by Hearst and the other San Francisco capitalist ; while there were three 
on the center seat. Senator Wilson had usurped my place with the driver. They had laid 
over at Eureka, and now came down upon us without any compensating relief in the way of 
a discharge of extra freight. Small items, you may complain, for rehearsal in the history of 
a trip to Pioche ; but everlasting memories in the minds of the heroes who sit on the outer 
rim of a rail-wide center seat. 

How I lived during that night-time, as we pushed on to Hamilton, I cannot tell. This 
revelation of unconsciousness I make for the genuine information of the inexperienced. 
The second night i>ut in such a mountain fast-freight wagon — what is it ? The state of the 
mind is that of partial syncope. There is not one man in ten who has travelled that period 
continuously in an outer center seat in a Concord wagon, who has not had occasion to reckon 
his good luck in failing to tumble into the road, or sprain a hand or arm by the accident of a 
sudden swinging out past the perpendicular slat that partitions either side, and aggravates 
the situation by jiretending to afford support for the weary arm-holder. There is an unex- 
plained Providence in this. The condition of hermiplegy in which I found myself at three 



— 5 — 

o'clock in the morning was decidedly novel ; but as a physical sensation only, was it fuuuy. 
There is wnquestionably matter in this suitable for an anatomical lecture before a class of 
medical students, but too complicated to admit of popular illustration. Suffice it to say 
here, in very plain language, that all may understand : when you ride to Pioche, in the 
wintry season, on the outer edge of a center seat occupied by three, and shall have Surrived at 
about the fourth hour of the second morning watch, and the sixth or seventh hour of this 
section of the ride, you will be perfectly well satisfied that there are two distinct separate 
lobes to the brain, two lobes to the lungs, and a nerve division throughout the entire trunk 
structure, which is correctly defined by the interior ramifications of the vertebral periostrum. 
You recognize each segment of the spinal column as an independent jiersonality, or rather as 
a solitary stamp-block worked by its own engine, having the base of oijerations on the tip of 
the small, bony formation which is beneath. There is a quality of supersensitive numbness, 
a species of callous delicacy, and a degree of mental comprehension of your own points of 
contact as though they belonged to somebody else, which renders these reviving moments of 
travel worthy of physiological and phrenological — and perhaps of moral — investigation and 
study ; although the latter branch of the case may be referred more properly to the language 
commonly used on such occasions. But as I perceive my eflbrts to elucidate this important 
part of my biography on this trip are not completely grasped, except by two or three physi- 
cians present, I desist from further utterances on this subject, and proceed to dryer groimds 
of narrative and comment. 

It was broad daylight when I was fairly aroused from my lethargy, and discovered by in- 
formation and belief of fellow-passengers that we were half way from Eureka to Hamilton. 
The road from this point of observation was over a rolling country for a distance of six or 
eight miles, and then across a broad valley to the foot of a hill or mountain, on which Ham- 
ilton is situated. Through this valley a railroad could be run from Elko or Toano,to within 
some twenty or twenty-five miles of Pioche, the grading of the entire distance not costing 
over four hundred dollars per mile. 

Our way was hard, though not long ; that is, the speed was disproportionate to the char- 
acter of the road. That is, it would have been more agreeable to have taken more time. At 
ten o'clock we were at the foot of the grade, so-called. To this point it is expected that the 
narrow gauge railroad from Elko will ultimately be built ; the elevation being of a sufficient 
degree to readily communicate with the shoots of the numberless mines— that are or are to 
be— on the inexhaustible base-metal summits of the range west of Hamilton. 

But now we are at the point indicated ; and without any railroad, broad or narrow gauge, 
but with a dead beat of an ordinary highway, we are about to ascend to Hamilton. At this 
point we change from the wagon or coach to a sleigh ; and with nearly equal alternations of 
riding and walking the remaining distance of five or six miles is passed w-ithin two hours. 
Immediately below the town of Hamilton a small party was engaged in digging out six or 
eight feet of snow which lay packed in avalanche-ready condition, ominous to behold. It is 
said that at various turns in the road, where the snow at the bottom is melted from a foot 
to two feet and a half, slides occur, which are very entertaining to all persons who are sta- 
tioned above the road on the beaten sideway, or who are fortunate enough to anticipate the 
movement and jump from the flood. The boss of this job of snow-moving and the driver of 
our sleigh did not agree as to the expediency and quality of a certain piece of work which 
had been performed during the winter on the highway leading up into the to^\'n. And at 
one time there was an unpleasantness seriously threatened between these parties. But Joe 
Clark and Senator Wilson interfered with jocose remarks and soothing comments on the un- 
friendly nature of the country " any how," which made the dialogue discursive, abated the 
excitement, and turned away wrath. So we were enabled to enter the great White Pine 
Capital in peace ; which we did at the hour of twelve. 

And first of all, we learned that there was not a connecting stage awaiting our arrival. 
The line from Palisades to Hamilton is separate and distinct from the management thence 
to Pioche. We were notified that we would be obliged to lie over at least one day if no extra 
coach was ordered by the Superintendent at Pioche ; perhaps twenty-four hours beyond. 
We were not sorry, as you can imagine, to hear of this delay ; and we selected and made al- 
most instant use of our boarding and sleeping accommodations in a spirit of enthusiastic 
gratitude and comfort. 

After thawing out— for it was a snowy day, with the thermometer at thirty-six in the 



shade — and embracing the bounties of the Barnum Kestaurant, (there are Barniim Restaurants 
now in every mining town on this coast) we hygienically prefaced our sleeping hours with 
a glance at this famous flash mining camp. Here it is 7,5D0 feet above the level of the sea. 
And with all the natural recollections as to the place and its promises, aye, and its realiza- 
tions—thirty or forty million of dollars— we had abundant food for curiosity and suggestive 
if not profound contemplation. We walked up the sidewalk to Wells, Fargo k Go's front, 
standing at first upon the paved sidewalk before an excellently finished two-story brick build- 
ing nearly the size in ground-area of the express building proper at the comer of Montgom- 
ery and California Streets. From the middle of the street in front of this office, we looked 
down the main street, a distance of half a mile or more, to the terminus of the camp ; closely 
lined with houses, which were mostly wooden structures, nor more than one story in height^ 
In the center of the street there was at least six feet of snow, closely packed. Could it be 
possible that in this place a few years ago there were not less than 12,000 inhabitants ? Ye* 
such is the record. TJp this hill above me, and over the brow to Treasure City, from three 
to five thousand persons were in the habit of daily passing during the Spring, Summer and 
Autumn months of 1869. And now I look down through a vista of three hundred houses, 
not one in five of which is occupied ; some of them going iguominously to rack and ruin. 
Here I stand ten minutes by my watch, from the moment at which it occurred to me to note 
it for such a purpose, and see not one human being on the street or either sidewalk, out of 
the whole number of the population which yet remains ! 

I thought I had once seen the extremity of desolation, in Aurora, where the Indian 
squaws had undisputed possession of three-story brick houses which were fit for transplant- 
ing, under the fire district laws, to Kearny Street, in this city. But somehow, Hamilton, by 
the known multitude on Its former directory, and the special promise of prosperity in its de- 
velopments, surpassed all previous impressions of sudden collapse and decay. 

Here, on my left, stood an Episcopal Church, as large as the Seaman's Bethel in this 
city, with a ponderous bell not less than three or four hundred pounds in weight set upon 
an independent tower in front ; in which church, as I was credibly informed, there had been 
no service for three mouths. And passing along the street which lies to the east, and imme_ 
diately below Wells, Fargo & Go's Express, I am shown a Catholic chapel capable of seating 
two hundred persons, in which, four years ago, there were often eight masses held on Sunday 
mornings, and then complaint of insufficient opportunity for all and for hundreds who de- 
Sired to attend. Now an itinerant priest comes for single services once in six weeks, and in- 
tones the ceremony before a dozen adult worshipers. 

I do not believe there is another such Instance of marvelous upspringing and almost ut- 
ter decrease of population from purely civil causes on the annals of the Coast ; and certainly 
such a migration and wholesale instantaneous departure has not been put in the familiar his- 
tory of any locality in any other portion of the globe within such a space of time ; for this 
town sprang from a desert in less than two years to its greatest estate. 

It is said that fully one half the dwellings that once stood in this settlement have been 
taken down, and removed either to Eureka or Pioche. And now that the fire-fiend has made 
a sweeping visit to this deserted village, I may claim to have written of the last town appear- 
ance of Hamilton as it was originally constructed. 

A court-house, which is said to have cost over $80,000, and which is a very solid and 
finished edifice, sits distant from the center of business— if I may so speak— over a quarter 
of a mile ; back of and far up above the bustle and turmoil and shooting scrapes of Hamil- 
ton. The building that was formerly used as a court-house— some forty by sixty feet, two 
stories in height, situate in the easternmost boimdary of the camp, on the road to^'ards Wash- 
burn's— is windowless and doorless ; and although it is a strong, warehouse-style of building, 
the rain and snow have so far soaked throiigh the roof and walls that the work of demolish- 
ment by natural causes is close to completion. 

On the side of the hill northeast of the camp are elegantly constructed works for re- 
ducing ore. They were erected under the direction and mainly with the money of a lucky 
fellow from New England, whose prize in the lottery of speculation was too great for his 
powers of mental balance. He built this magnificent furnace, fenced it round about with 
stone and iron, stocked the coal yard with fuel, and retired to private life. " Jobson's Folly " 
would be as one to twenty compared with this unused and apparently useless monument for 
the spendthrift ; with this make-weight : there are not enough salvable drinkers left in the 



vk-iuity to warrant the conversion of this twenty-to-one structure into an inebriate asylum- 
Beyond, on the same side of the same hill, is the first engine-house of the Von Strhmidt Wa- 
ter Company ; the companion hydraulic sheds being situated on the opposite liill towards 
Treasure City. Here thousands of dollars were expended in carrying water, on works in- 
tended to be capable of supplying fifty thousand inhabitants, and mills adapted to the crush- 
ing of thousands of tons of ore per day. The works are here : waiting for a revival. 

Which reminds me — alas, for Hamilton ! — when I was there, in March [1873], every body 
was speaking of the revival— the " coming up," as it was termed ; siu-e to be in the month of 
May, at furthest. Occasionally, it is true, I thought I discerned a sinister expression in the 
countenance of the boaster, which could not be interpreted otherwise than as an agreement 
between himself and the first person offering, to sell out his establishment or homestead at 
the first rise of ten per cent, from existing prices. But generally, the belief in the coming-up 
was undoubtedly sincere ; and therefore the declaimers were proper objects and recipients of 
our instant sympathy. For the stranger, however unjustly, would at this season argue noth- 
ing else than infatuation in such expectations ; and now we have the sad tidings that in addi- 
tion to a failure to " come up," there has been the worst of material calamities : exterminat- 
ing fire. 

An afternoon and a long night of dreamless sleep. Koused at seven with tidings of an 
order from Pioche for the extra coach to start out at twelve. We grumble at the unnecessary 
haste in conveying the news to prospective passengers. We take a ride up toward Treas- 
ure City, and look on snow-capped Pogonip ; thinking from first to last, as we gaze upon 
that magnificent height— 12,000 feet above the level of the sea— of our ill-fated friend and 
brother newspaper man. Colonel Evans ; whose dispatches " from the clouds," interpreted as 
they were intended to be, exhibit a wit which the attempted rhyme of ridicule, though much 
bepraised, never possessed. All this range, from Pogonip— towering into the clouds to the 
north, in a gradually lessening height— from the mountain-base of this great summit, for a 
distance of eight miles, is filled with metal that would pay richly if a railroad was con- 
structed from the main artery, 120 miles distant. It has been demonstrated over and over 
again, and is plain to any man's comprehension who can read and ascertain facts, and 
cipher in the four fundamental rules of arithmetic, that a narrow-gauge railroad from Elko 
or Toano to Hamilton, or the valley grade north of the town, would pay for itself in freights 
within three years ; and yet no effort is made on the part of the great K. K. Company either 
directly to construct or to encourage such construction. On the contrary, sham proceedings 
are taken in the name and cause of a survey, so as to prevent genuine action ; and genuine lobby- 
ing is constantly performed at the capital of Nevada, every other winter, to secure the passage 
of bills giving immediately to the railroad company agreeing to construct a road from Elko 
to Palisade, or from Toano to Eureka and Hamilton and Pioche, bonds sufficient to pay for 
the entire work of grading and the iron and the rolling-stock ; without specifying as to the 
time within ten years when the road shall be completed ! Such bills are up before every ses- 
sion of the Legislature, and at the last session such bills were passed (and vetoed) . It is 
with the railroad as with the Western Union Telegraph monopoly— they believe that the fruits 
of their illegitimate action pay better than honest zeal in the development of the country. 
Thus millions of dollars will be given to members of legislatures, but not one rail for any 
outlying section without a subsidy. This is the motto which, beginning at Sacramento, does 
not stop short of Pioche— toward which terminal point of railroad subsidy coiTuption and 
expectation we arc supposed, on a rough road in a wintry season, to be traveling. We have 
hesitated too long by the way, and must proceed.* 

At twelve o'clock, with only one Clark on board, the same party that came from Eureka 

* Note. — In this connection a reminiscence is unavoidable : 

All the woes which have been and are now being visited upon thi.s people on accoiint of 
the " Railroad Monopoly" were prophesied and put upon the printed record, in the State of 
Nevada, six or seven years ago. Two successive Legislatures, by a large majority vote, 
adopted resolutions instructing Senators and requesting the member of Congress to pass a law 
granting a right of way and a land subsidy, and contingent help in bonds, to the Placcrville 
and Washoe Railroad Company. At the first session referred to, the Company named was 
ready with a backing of $3,000,000 of domestic and not less than $10,000,000 of English cap- 
ital, to go forward and thoroughly construct and complete a projected and actually profiled 
work of trans-mountain railway, in the event of Congress acceding to the most nasonable 
requests of the Nevada Legislature. There would never have been such a thing as a " Rail- 
road Monopoly " in California, or on this Coast, if the petition of the people of Nevada, in 



movfid out on the " extra " ambulance — a four-horse sleigh— and commenced the descent of a 
long hill on the southeast, which constitutes the first mile and a half of the distance. It is 
ten miles to the first station. A mile out we have the extreme rear view of Trcasiare City — 
one or two houses. We pass a burned mill, and we pass the chosen sites of several cities 
whose existence was once grandly exhibited in San Francisco on paper, with the lots all 
marked at very moderate figures, and on very easy terms : cities that were never biarned, for 
the only reason that they were never built. One of Col. Clarkson's cities was pointed out ; 
also, the mouths of three of Col. Clarkson's silver mines, at one of which he once employed 
35 mules and 350 men, and extracted 3,500 tons of bullion per month, at an average of not 
less than S35,000 in gold and $350,000 in silver. For all of which veracious and exhilarating 
information we are indebted, as we pass along, to Joe Clark— old Joe Clark, of Missouri— who 
spoke of and pointed out Col. Clarkson's sources of fabulous wealth with a dry air and tone of 
implicit faith which was too exquisite to call for laughter at that altitude, and too penetrating to 
admit of any less profound testimonial of appreciation than tears. We wept as we slid along 
the way, and meditated upon what had been owned and lost in those mountains by Col. Clark - 
son, of San Francisco ! As none of my audience are acquainted with Col. Clarkson, and there- 
fore cannot understand this part of my address, I will skip the remaining portion of my 
written reference to this Monte Cristo of Pogonip, and push on to Pioche ; only halting now 
to intimate that the Mountain Maid, and the Sailor Boy's Dehght, and the Queen of the HilU, 
which Joe Clark visited with Col. Clarkson, in 1869, were not graspingly and niggardly ex- 
hausted by Col. Clarkson ; but that, within the recesses of their tunnels, shafts, and drifts, 
there yet remains, to the hands of whomsoever will come and dig, as great riches as were ever 
extracted from their argentiferous surface. 

As we pass along, we see also the tramway, the iron elevated ra'lroad constructed by Mr. 
Hallidie, of San Francisco, for the great Treasiure Hill mines, leading down to their eighty- 
stamp mill. This elevated railway can hardly be called a success ; though recently its angles 
have been diminished in severity, and its length is to be somewhat shortened by bringing the 
new mill nearer to the point of deliverj' from the mine ; Mahomet Mill will kneel in stature- 
and go to the mountain. And then it is expected that better results will come, from the chain 
alterations. 

1866 and 18G7, concerning national gifts and loansof credit in behalf of the Placerville route 
Company, had been favorably answered. 

Why was it not favorably answered ? 

Notwithstanding the ready perfidy of the persons sent by Nevada to the Senate of the 
United States, Congress would undoubtedly have given the aid required in the premises, but 
for the direct, and bitter, and incessant hostility of the leading newspapers of California to 
the project. The very journals which to-day are most vehement, which are strongest in their 
terms against the " Railroad Monopoly," are the very ones which derided the prophecies and 
•denounced the timely and legitimate efforts of the people of Nevada, six or seven years ago. 

There is not a character of oppression of which the " Railroad Monopoly " has been 
guilty, that was not literally described in the Nevada Legislatiires of '66 and '67, and set down in 
Nevada newspapers and other publications during those years, as sure to follow the failure to 
improve the opportune moment to successfully encourage and establish adjacent competition 
in trans-mountain railways. 

The richest and most aggressively enterprising Company then operating upon this Coast, 
as a land force, (I mean Wells, Fargo & Co.) was " pouring nut money like water " (to use the 
language of Sujoerintendent Bishop) in the building of a line of railway toward the western 
base terminus of the Sierra Nevada route, which had already been surveyed and profiled by 
the ablest railroad engineer then in the State of California. Had the Placerville and Washoe 
Railroad been completed, a competing line would imdoubtedly have been extended from the 
eastern base of the Sierra Nevada to Salt Lake. All Central and Southern Nevada would have 
been directly and speedily " opened " to San Francisco trade, by the main trunk and its con- 
templated branches ; pouring enormous wealth into the lap of our merchants, and gi\'ing 
great prosperity to all citizens engaged in traffic. Had that road been constructed, the indus- 
trial population of Nevada would have been ten times as great as now ; while San Francisco 
would have numbered nearly a quarter of a million of people, with its active business-moving 
capital more than double the present record. But it was not so to lie. 

No ejiithet was too severe for the Sacramento Union and the San Francisco RuUHin to 
utter against persons in the Legislature of Nevada who, with well known and conceded sacri- 
fice of personal, political ambition, and in defiance of every species of threat, and in disre- 
gard of the strongest kind of temptations, were struggling to obtain for the Placerville and 
Washoe Railro:!!! Company at least a right of way and a land grant margin across the moun- 
tains. These papt rs not only denounced the proposition to give bonds to this competing 
line— speaking in avowed behalf of the Central Pacific Railroad Company— but hurrahed 
•when, principally through their outside influence, the mere right of way was refused by 
Congress. And when a small land grant was finally obtained for a portion of the advancing 



At the first relay vro changed to a mud-wnKon. A few miles further on in the descent into 
the valley -we drive up beside a sleigh, and handle our baggage once more. A mile of sliding, 
and we tip up and tumble over, all tossed into the snow ; but at a very moderate delivery we 
all rise to say it was " just as we expected." That is not precisely what we mean ; biit is hon- 
estly as near the truth as we are capable of approaching during several minutes of extra- 
ordinary self-possession. The sleigh is righted heavily in response to our joint efforts, and 
we start on. But while we are pretending to congratulate ourselves on the fact that no 
bones were broken — as if there had been any danger in that soft bed on either side without 
an absolute tm-ning over of the box— over she rolled again ; this time with a sharper accent, 
as if some one who had put Tip the original job had remarked on this occasion : " Now I 
mean business." Just escaped the second turn of the body of the conveyance, which would 
have bruised something if we had not extricated ourselves from the point where the edge 
pushed into the snow. 

From this we take a decidedly new departure. The pioneer in the rear and myself in 
the front of the sleigh devoted ourselves to trimming ship ; crossing from one side to the 
other as the grade requested us. George Hearst and Senator Wilson did the talking. It is 
always agreeable to hear two rich men converse about their respective biographies when 
they are at leisure. They love the reminiscences for themselves ; they love to fondle over 
their lucky plans ; they don't object to having attentive listeners. So it was a pleasant ride 
from the second overthrow to within six miles of the foot of the descent and the end of the 
gorge or valley, through which the road passes into the meadows at Washburn's. 

At this point, six miles from Washburn's Station, we were to have been met by the stage 
from the south-east, and to have exchanged passengers and luggage. Here the snow gave 
o\it again, and the runners could slip no further. " What shall be done ? " was the inquiry 
of the driver ; the most intelligent and accommodating Knight of the Whip we had vouch- 
safed us on the journey. He was ready to accede to any proposition agreed ujion by the 
majority of the party. There was a " wagon bed," so termed by courtesy, built expressly to 
carry rails or some less dignified burden ; and that was the only conveyance at hand. It was 
now six o'clock, and growing dark. Should we stop, build a fire, and wait for the wagon 

line on the route from Sacramento — notoriously too late to be of any avail — that ^-as sneered 
at, as an off'er only to be tolerated because it would not be utilized for the benefit of the 
grand competing project. 

The people of California and Nevada owe their present railroad monopoly bondage, their 
present lack of cheap railroad facilities— the vast difference between what is with one rail- 
road over the Sierra Nevadas and through Nevada amd Utah, and what would have been 
with a competing line via Placcrville and across central Nevada, and central and southcm Utah 
— to the leading journals of California ; the very papers that before all others are now lifting 
up their voices in holy horror and condemnation against the '■ exactions of Stanford & Co." 
I have some warmth, as I think of the treachery and hypocrisy of these papers ; but I am 
stating the coldest history. 

I was amused very much by a recent dispatch in the " Associated Press " of California, 
dated from New York ! stating that the people of Nevada were also decidedly opposed to the 
railroad monopoly, and instancing some action at Elko. Why, when the people of Nevada 
were almost unanimous in crying out for preventive relief and benefits on the railroad 
question — giving particulars of the thralldom that would be established otherwise — the 
Union and BuUelin were the stipendiaries of Stanford & Co., and ready to defame any one 
who vigorously foretold the reign of the railroad magnates on this coast. 

Have the people forgotten these things ? 

Of course, the people of Nevada were in a better position, geographically and otherwise, 
to discover in advance the conditions of the Central Pacific Railroad monopoly than the 
people of California. 

When it became manifest that in the sections where they had largest circulation the 
great majority was aroused to their wrongs under the MonoiJoly— then, and not till then, the 
Union and Bnlletin, believing that more was to be made by appearing to serve the people than 
by avowedly doing the bidding of Stanford & Co. — (the 'Bulletin also having a contingent in 
the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad swindle) — ceased to be the mouth pieces of the Railroad 
Company, and sent their hireling quilldrivers into their editorial minarets to call their com- 
munities to emanciiiation prayer ! 

And the people seem to have forgotten recent history. True, there are many new comers 
among us. But surely the people of Nevada have occasion to bear this history in mind. 

Nevada would have aided the Placerville and Washoe Railroad Company, under an 
amended constitution, or by large county grants, if the work had been commenecd and 
l^rosecuted to the first mountain summit. Three counties of Nevada have furnislnd the 
means, with the mine contributions, to build for Mr. William Sharon a railroad from Reno 
to Virginia City, which is said to be paying a profit of J3,000 per day— nearly two millions 
of dollars per annum. The railroad from Placerville over the mountains to Carson Valley 



— 10 — 

which was momentarily expected ; or should we strap the baggage ou the four-wheeled frame 
work that had boen left at the meeting point as a tender, and take the best chances we could 
in alternately riding on the ridge of trunks, satchels, bullion bars and mail sacks, and walk- 
ing on the sagebrush line ou either side of the track ? It seemed to be unanimous that we 
should move on. All hands busily at work in unbinding and reloading the freight. Thirty 
minutes required for this work. Wilson and Hearst walked ahead. The full moon began 
to make itself felt as a light unto our feet. As we mount the tip-top of the luggage and 
commence our journey anew to pursue, we find it is far more agreeable than we had antic- 
ipated. In fact, it was exceedingly pleasant at first : this moonlight drive down this beauti- 
ful cafion. Now for brevity's sake, take the original skeleton memoranda : 

Caught up with Hearst and Wilson within a mile and a half. Began to make time as the 
road grew better. At the three mile post the driver said he would " let 'em slide." He did 
" let 'em slide." Passengers had to hold on. Conversation grew les.s boisterous ; more at- 
tention jjaid to position. Occasional instances wherein the superstructure above the rail 
bottom of the wagon appeared to lift in awful unanimity, as a rock was despised but not dis- 
placed, and the quick obedience thereafter to the inexorable laws of gravitation resulted in a 
sickening sensation at the pit of the stomach. Nothing was said except by George Hearst — 
once. He mentioned Horace Greeley's name once. He was equally interrupted by us all ; 
and we all prepared to laugh at our simultaneous mesmeric consciousness of each other's ap- 
preciation of the reference, when again a flying earthquake occurred, and we retained our 
sobriety ; and some of us looked at Hearst as if we thought his mention of Horace was a little 
like mocking a serious matter. The driver yelled, " Slide 'em, Fanny ; slide 'em ! Hi yi ! " 
And they slid. As we approached Washburn's, the canon grew narrower every moment. 
Now it was not more than one eighth of a mile wide, at a mile distant from the station. The 
moon, however, came up straight in front of us, and poured her strongest beams right down 
upon our pathway ; the six horses— splendid animals— answered the encouragement of the 
driver with apparantly ever-increasing swiftness. There were no more thumping u^jheavals, 
but a sense of spinning along at a rate that would be dangerous in case of something break- 
ing or getting a little loose. We enjoyed the scenery ; we were delighted with the moon ; 
we admired the rushing steeds ; but we were thinking of something else most of the time 
during the single hour which was exhausted in our ride from the open, extemporized, unat- 
tended station at the foot of the descent proper, to the door of Washburn's hotel. 

O I how glad we were to reach the station ; to get out of the canon and the wagon. Be- 
cause we were cold ; because we were hungry. All except George Hearst. He was glad for 
more. He was fairly churned into decent candor of confession. As he stretched down he 

would have cost about $12,000,000. It would evidently have paid for itself in eight or ten 
years, at farthest, without calculating upon an extension from Carson Valley to the East. 
And who can estimate all the benefits? all the comparative advantages? For this consum- 
mation the people of Nevada intelligently insisted and labored, in public meetings and in 
legislative bodies ; beating up always against the influence — alas ! too potent — of the two 
leading journals of California. 

The moral is this : Our people must iinderstand that they have to rescue themselves from 
the hands of monopolists. Our leading journals are wholly unreliable. They are now and 
have been for years spoon-fed by the greatest monopoly in the country — the Western Union 
Telegraph — and land, and railroad, water, gas, grain, coal and oil monopolies have their in- 
terested support, until the rebelling will of the people begins to produce a popular and un- 
avoidable incredulity as to the assumed honesty. The greatest curse of California, I may 
say of this Coast, has been its venal leading Press. 

And even now, do you ever hear a ijractical, ready remedy suggested for the Kailroad 
Monopoly, from the quarter above named ? No. 

The remedy is with Congress — quick, sharp, sweeping. 

The House of Representatives once passed a resolution cutting down the rates of rail- 
road fare on the transcontinental road one half. A Pacific Coast Senator pocketed the reso- 
lution. That Senator returned to this Coast after this great act of outrage and perfidy, and 
with the hearty endorsement of the Union and Bulletin, was reelected to the seat ho then and 
now eminently disgraces. 

When this Senator was canvassing for reelection, and after his high crime against the 
people had been publicly exposed, he bought off a little rival [who had always, himself, 
closet intercourse with Stanford & Co.] with promises of Federal offices, from Minister down 
to tide-waiter. And now the Minister, who was appointed by this bargain, comes back from 
a foreign shore to play champion of the people against the Kailroad Company, in the aspi- 
rant-character of candidate for United States Senator. And the Union and BuUdin ai'e choice 
in their commendations of the little creature. 

This is a funny world I 



— 11 — 

declared that "this may be a good sort of thing for a mile or two, but for an all-night's bus- 
iness it would be monotonous." So the proi)osition to move on from the station that night, 
instead of laying over, didn't meet with decisive favor. 

As we ate much at the wholesome supper board, we talked somewhat of the folly that 
would have been exhibited if we had waited for the stage up yonder. A folly which became 
more palpable when we awoke next morning at six o'clock and ascertained that the over-due 
conveyance had not even then arrived. At seven o'clock, however, it made its appearance, with 
three passengers, including one of the proprietors of the Pioche Stage Line ; and we all 
breakfasted together, and exchanged items on the condition of the roads. 

Washburn's Station is worthy of a paragrajih of description. It is situated at the very 
throat of the gorge, which is at least four miles in length, and at the opposite end of a gently 
descending valley, which is at least six miles long. At this point the road passes south-east 
into a continually widening valley or "bottom" some five miles in length. If you take a 
maiJ (the Chronicle's map will do) you will observe that the road from Palisade to Pioche is 
zig-zag, determined at different ijlaces by the location of the settlements intervening, and by 
the nature of the country. You are going about south-east as you strike "Washburn's. 
You turn perhaps one or two degrees easterly when you pass his door. 

"Washburn's Hotel is a one-story structure, 25 or 30 feet long, by 10 wide, with a 7-foot 
ceiling. One-third, and the older portion of this " Station," is constructed of stone and logs 
and the rudest kind of mortar, in about equal proportions. Two-thirds of the building are 
entirely of wood, rough, a patched rather than a thatched roof, half shingled and half mud 
paste. In the iirst and elder portion of the building is the reception-room, with a paved 
floor, a wide, open fire-place, two bunks, one above another, and at this time of sojourning a 
Western Union Telegraph oflice. 

It was nine o'clock when we arrived at "Washburn's. Driver's question again : ' ' Shall 
we wait here for the stage, or drive on ?" Verdict of " wait " — after several ineffectual efforts 
to obtain through the telegraph information from Pioche as to whether the stage that was to 
meet us had started out at a given hour. Now here was an opportunity to have felt with 
emphatic interest the benefits of the telegraph in this lonely place. But the yoimg man at 
Pioche was unwilling to bestir himself so far as to cross the street and ascertain the news we 
wished ; in which unwillingness and inefficiency and plain refusal he admirably sustained 
the character of the great telegraph monopoly of the land. 

After supping, sleeping, and breakfasting, we had a space of a few moments in which to 
notice the Nation by daylight. For, I repeat, it is in itself a curiosity. It is biiilt back 
against a rocky hill-side. The gate into the corral, which closely adjoins the house, is be- 
tween two natural pillars of stone, seventeen to twenty feet high, separated for the passages 
about two and a-half feet. The "old man" "Washburn was reported to have named these 
pillars masonically. 

The " old lady" is tired of this border life and wishes to return to California. But the 
old men and the boys (the latter occasionally relieving the regular drivers on the stage route) 
love the present location and prospects. So this is likely to remain "Washburn House until 
the railroad is built. 

At eight o'clock in the morning our joiuney is resumed; passing Meadow "Valley fourteen 
miles easterly, then through Dry "Valley twenty-two miles southerly. Then turning up to 
the east direct and crossing Patterson Mountains, a distance of seventeen miles. The summit 
of those mountains is six hundred feet above Dry "Valley, from which we ascend in going to- 
wards Pioche, and four himdred feet above the "Valley road, which leads from the eastern 
base of the Patterson range to the mining camps at the south. "We reached Patterson's 
station at eleven o'clock at night ; passing on our way through deserted mining camps which 
at one time promised to be equal in population and business development to the camp of 
Pioche, or any other mineral-bearing center. 

Patterson's Station is situated within about a mile of the eastern foot of the mountain. 
"We roused the landlord, injudiciously ordered supper and ate heartily, and camped down in 
close quarters, heads and points, on the bar room floor, in true travelers' style. 

A Chinaman woke us up at five with loud stamping and shrieking announcements for 
breakfast. •'Here,-get up, you damn! what for hell you sleep all day for. Never get to 
Pioche. Breakfast get all damn cold." Here the host checked the articulating gong by the 
assurance that the passengers were all roused up. This Chinaman was a graduate of one of 
the Mission Schools of San Francisco. 



12 



Au(l now at seven o'clock we are on the home stretch. A descent of two or three hundred 
feet into the great valley which points directly into Piochc ; and by the aid of foiir prescribed 
relays, over a tolerably good road, at three o'clock we find ourselves taking the first sight of 
the mining capital of Southern Nevada. 

Half way up on the mountain range to which we suddenly turned from a southerly 
direction, our course now bearing more to the west, we discovered two or three hundred 
house or cabin roofs, which still retain and show the gloss of new shingling, sitting — with 
a single short straight street line exception — in a constantly rising inflection. Can this be 
Piochc? "That is Pioche, which we have travelled about 280 miles by stage to see." The 
driver immediately informed us that we really have in view about one-half of the town ; 
Meadow Valley and Cedar, two considerable streets, and a portion of Main street extending 
on to the Raymond and Ely works, being, as yet, hidden from sight. 

As we gradually approach we have more and more house roof and side brought under 
notice, until we turn to the south at a distance of a half or three quarters of a mile from the 
town, when the main street, as well as the short spur of Lacour street, is within the direct 
line of vision. Well, here is Pioche. A wonderful mining camp to be situated at this dis- 
tance from the railway. "Pioche," which strikes you at first with the conviction that it is 
a place which is at the end of a long and severe journey. It may strike you secondly, that 
it is very like every other prosperous side-mountain camp in Nevada that you have ever 
visited. It occurs to you thirdly, that it is incredible that there have been 7,000 inhabitants here 
within the past three years, to remain for one period of twelve months. You do not now 
realize that it contains 3,000 adult population. 

The driver begins to point out the locations of the different mines which are situated 
immediately back of the town on the sharply rising mountain sides. But you check him to 
inquire as to the new mill on your left, that is fully constructed but apparently unused. 
That is the Flowery mill, erected under the superintendence of Jake Clark. And it is supposed 
that Joe Clark comes to help place it upon a business footing. It has not been at work yet. 

And here we notice, a few rods above this mill, half a mile or more from town, two grave- 
yards. The driver replies to our inquiry, " That is the Odd Fellows', that the Masons' ceme- 
tery." And he informs us that an unfenced area is a public cemetery, in which repose the 
bones and ashes of 112 men, — adding with probable exaggeration : " Seven of which died a 
natural death." The last two men who died with their boots on were buried there the day 
before yesterday. And in so telling, this driver seemed also to have a pride of history in 
such a matter. 

We have touched the suburbs of Pioche, and as we slowly move up the hill on a grade 
increasing from ten to twenty feet, we take the driver's enumeration of the mines and listen 
with thoroughly absorbed interest, until we reach the edge of a crowd of not less than fifteen 
hundred persons, which fills Main Street from the junction of Lacour up to the Express office 
— a distance of about 350 feet. 

Pioche is situated in what might be properly termed the " bite" of four distinct hills on 
the mountain range. Here on the right, as you commence the ascent into the town, is a lime- 
stone hill. Passing around its individual base, a mile perhaps, and you come to a hill of 
quartzite, on which the Raymond & Ely, Hermes, Kentucky, Pioche-Phoenix, Newark, Ingo- 
mar, and other claims are located— the Panaca Flat claims proper. Half a mile of travel on 
the breast of this hill, over the most northerly portion of the course, and you come to the 
Meadow Valley range, which is also quartzite. This is divided from the last mentioned 
(Raymond & Ely) hill by a depression of something near 70 feet in the top of the hill : a road 
running up from the end of Main Street proper through this depression. On this hill are 
the various Meadow Valley mines, the works of which are in the breast of the hill—that is 
about half way up from the town. Above the Meadow Valley are the Huhn & Hunt, Chap- 
man, American Flag, and half-a-dozen other mines of less celebrity. This range runs in aa 
easterly and westerly direction. There is a hill or mountain spur, extending northerly from 
the breast of this quartzite movmtain side, on which the Meadow Valley mines are situated, 
of limestone formation. 

Suppose Telegraph Hill to represent the Raymond & Ely segment of the mountain circle, 
and Russian Hill, as far as Pine Street, to represent the Meadow Valley range ; and then sup- 
pose that from Pine Street there should extend this hill of limestone, striking out directly 
toward the Bay : th.it will give you some idea—and, I think, not altogether a vague one— of the 



] 



— 13 — 

two promontories of wealth, with one of the limestone projections. This last-described hill 
runs north a quarter of amile, and is, so far as ascertained, valueless as a mineral-bearingbody . 
So you perceive that Pioche is almost in an amphitheatre— with uo valley, plain, or regular 
bowl, it is true ; with one outlook northerly, looking out into an immense valley view, the 
upper end of which extends beyond the vision, and in fact, as already noted, is traveled 
clear up to the Patterson Ascent, from which we have just arrived. 

Main Street runs up at a steep incline, say like Washington Street, from Montgomery to 
Taylor. Then it slightly deflects to the right and sinks in Panaca Flat. Out from Main 
Street, in an easterly direction, is Meadow Valley Street, at about the center of the most 
populous portion of the town. And above one hundred feet, in the same general direction 
from Main Street, is Cedar Street ; but it ultimately, and at a distance, I should judge, of 
about 400 feet, runs into and connects with Meadow Valley Street. Meadow Valley Street is 
dedicated to saloons and such like places of entertainment. Cedar Street, from its 
point of departure from Main Street, is of a respectable kind. It has a school house, two 
churches. Episcopal and Catholic, and three handsome residences, with a filling in of hum- 
ble, but decent cottages. 

Lacour Street branches oflf from Main Street, about half way up the town from the Hay 
Corrals, which latter forms, of com-se, the first definite limits of the camp. Lacour Street 
runs uearlv level for a distance of 800 feet. 

Al)out 400 feet from the corner of Main and Lacour is the Court House, a structure com- 
posed of stone and brick, in about equal parts, of the size of two stories of the Young Men's 
Christian Association building in this city. It cost the county in the neighborhood of S125,- 
000 ; but the contractors who were engaged in the work were not ruined by the outlay. In 
this building the celebrated Raymond and Ely vs. Hermes case was tried— the largest min- 
ing case, the most hotly contested, and actually, by virtue of the title set up and most ably 
and vigorously urged on the part of the plaintiff, involving greater interests than were ever 
before staked in any similar encounter on this Coast. 

But I am admonished that the time appropriated for my use in this place, on one occa- 
sion, has expired. A more complete and systematic description of this most remarkable 
mining camp ; a narrative of the great mining trial, " all of which I saw and part of which I 
was ;" with personal descriptions of the judge, lawyers, witnesses and others connected there- 
with ; nn account of a trip to Bullionville and the Mormon town of Panaca, twelve miles 
distant from Pioche, and a description of the Warm Springs and the Mills in that vicinity ; 
the nan-ative of a somewhat lengthy and detail interview with the celebrated Mother Lee 
(who superintended and carried on the Indian war of 1866-7, in this neighborhood) ; and 
a description of Eureka, and a mining trial there ; these must all be reluctantly set aside at 
this time— perhaps to be submitted to you in this place on some future occasion. 

So with vivid personal recollections of the scene, I now plant myself squarely on Panaca 
Flat, and bid you Good Night. 



W. K. VANDERSLICE. I- THOMPSON. 

W. K. VANDERSLICE & CO. 



Manufacture and Sell all kinds of Solid Silver Ware, 

Wholesale and Retail, 

13 fi Sutter St., Opposite Lich House. 



Repairing of Silver Ware promptly attended to. Plating, Eeplatiug, Gilding and Engraving 
done in the best manner. 

H. S. CROCISER c& CO. 

^TATIOl^ERS, 
N. W. Corner of Sansome and Sacramento Streets, 

SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. 

Importer Carpets, Oil Cloths, Window Shades, Etc. 

040 <f- 042 Clay Street, San Francisco. 

JACOB SHEW, PHOTOGRAPHER, 

Cor. Montgomery and Commercial Sts., San Francisco. 

Ohaiks L Bimsif , Ehmi laid lip@itef , 

Office, No. 6 Municipal Court Building, San Francisco. 



David Wooster, Physician and Surgeon. 208 Kearny St. 



Daily Evening Post, San Francisco, Price, 12^ Cents per Week. Henry George, Editor. 
JOHN W. CHERRY, 

Plain and Ornamental Sign Painter 

Corner ol Sutler Street and Trinity Place, Det, fficntgoniery and Kearny Sts, 
Work Thorough and Artistic. Prices Reasonable. 



Ten Iniites once a day, for thorongli Gyimiastic Exercise. 




LADIES' 

ealtl 

PARLORS, 

lis KEARNY STREET, 

Over Keane & O'Connor's. / S 

LADY IN AHENDANOE. 

Visitors Welcomei"^ 




Over one hundred San Francisco references from the most intelligent classes :— not from profes- 
sional certificate-makers. Gentlemen's Training Rooms, No. 606 Montgomery Street, corner of Clay. 
Send for circulars. 



From G. W. Carlton, Esq., PuWisher: " I have used your Self-Lifter about three months very 
regularly— about seven times per week— still use it regularly, and find its effects very satisfactory." 

* * * Henry C. BoWEN, Editor of the /ncJep^nrfewi, says: "It is so constructed that the 
most feeble person can use it with entire safety, and it can be used by ladies in company icith genflimen 
without any cliaitge of dress." » ♦ » Wn.yv.Mo-RLKs-D.ii.Tt., Fellow Mass. State Med. Soc, 
describes the effects as "exhilaration, lightness, increase of muscular force, and a pleasant accelera- 
tion of the circulation, without the least strain or other injurious effect." ***!£. II. 
LowRY, President Ban* of the Repitbtic, says: "I have used the ' Reactionary Lifter' over three 
months. * » The result is that mv health and strength are greatlv renovated. * » I 
recommr-nd the instrument to all who, like myself, lead a sedentary life." * * * Hon Geo. 
S. IIiLLAKD, after six months' experience, "can recommend it as a good and healthy form of Kxer- 
risiv It fiiiickens the circulation, increases the muscular force, and gives to the whole system a sense 
of renewed vigor. It is to be partlcularlv recommended to those whcse habits are sedentaiy. " * * 

* Oliver Wendell Holmes writes that " it furnishes a concentrated form of Exercise which 
I liave found salutarv, agreeable and exhilarating >• * * » Geo. Khakk GnrLi;Y, Esq., Ed- 
itor of the Freemason, "'t. Louis: "I would not take sWOOO for mv Reaction \rv Lifter if I could not 
replace it, so l)eneficial have I found its u.sc." « * * " Deserves all the 8ttentii>n claimed for 
it,"— y/ie Nation. * * * "In female weaknesses, of the highest importance."— Edward 
Bay Alio, ;m. D. * * * " A perfect pan-athletic system of Rxercise,"—TKOf. F. O. %VELcn, 
Chair of Physical Culture, Yale College. * » ♦ " invaluable for persons of sedentary hab- 
its. "—T. W.'f'oLBURK, Esq., Secretary Meadow Valley Mining Coinnany. .San Francisco * * * 
" Cures Functional Diseases by causing a more complete renewal of arterial Mood in the flnesteapil- 
larles THAN CAN BE secured liv any other known .means."— Dr. David Wooster, of San Fran- 
cisco. * * * "Regular everelse on the Reactionary Lutkr renders chiM-l.irth almost 
painless."— 11 M. Ryland, M. D. * * * Henry Ward Brkchku conimenils it to " all per- 
sons whose avocations severelv tax the brain, and to all whose nervous system is run down. It gives 
thorough exercise with little fatigue, and with hut little loss of time." * « • Prof. J. P. 
BuMsrRAD, M. I) of the Collene of Physicians and Saraeons, savs: " as a means ef retaining, and In 
certain cases of disease, of regaining health. I reearif it of great value." * ♦ * Elder 
Miles Grant s.nvs: "We have visited the ' Healih Lift" rooms, at ()(i6 Montgomery street. San 
Francisco. Ciil.: and were delighted with the newly invented machine of Rev. Charles II. JIann, of 
Orange, JT. .1. It is admirably adapted for the object designed. It is cheaper, smaller, more easily 
adjusted, and movp effective for good than anything of the kind we have ever seen. It is a irell-settled 
fact that the ^ LiftiiHj Cure'' is one of the best menns of restorino and preserving health. We would 
recommend all to trv it who can have the opportunity. Every family should have one of these 
' Reactionary Liners.' as ihev are called If their value was oiily known, many families would be 
willing to lav aclde their costly furniture, or appnrel. for the sake at getting the 'Reaetion.ary IJtler.' 
We have no Interest in speaking on this tulijcct but the welfare of our iViends. We know whereof 
weafflnn." 



{ 



^^ 



??7 






:i>~> i:>^_;>^ 

)>^> -:>> ^:>:') 



T>^:)x 



Mm 



ii 























.^- ~> ^^ »>.'0 ... 



>-^A}m. 






. ^.., \ > :. :5j> > > %> ■■ >•-> . ■*.! r-'> >; 



.,^— ^ V 


^ X^ \ 


kv~^"":> • 


o o^ > 


w- > 3 


^ 3 ^ ^ 


► : > ~^ 


, >> o > J> 




^> ^:) > 


► ■ > J> 


>> ;>3 :> 


■k J> ^ 


»^ ^>^ 1 


WOj> 


}..)> ::>>^^ 


^ ''^ y 


^> >> > 




>:> >^ > ' 


► ') :> -■> 


j> >\ :> ' 


P> >3 ^ 


> >:>, ^^ 3 


>>:> 


). >:» >o 


"*o :> ■ r 


:>; »;>)) 



a; 



^ > ^ V> 















???? 



o:>o 3 



>>°3i>> o3 



:^^ 






'>^>^S V 






> :> >-> » 

V) >s> :» 



